The Distinction of Human Being

An Introduction to the Logotectonic Method of Conception

Thomas Kruger Caplan

• Publisher: Vernon Press
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781622730506
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophical Metaphysics

Perhaps we are never done with thought, nor should be. If this is indeed the case, then Kant may have been right after all in supposing that folks will never lose interest in metaphysics, in thought thinking thought. But what of academics? Where would we find these days a comprehensive treatment of pure reason, of the epochs of its origins and accomplishments, that is not just another collection of interpretations of “source” texts in translation?

This study introduces philosophy students and professionals to the “logotectonic” method of conception as developed by Heribert Boeder, a pupil of Martin Heidegger, which is broadly structuralist in its approach but endeavors to make evident how the principles of rationality governing the Occidental tradition of λóγος (logos) – even those dictated by the animus of our post/modern world of thought in opposition to it – are, in fact, founded upon the “nature” of pure reason itself, the intellect, the discipline, and the art of which can be understood as constituting a unique “language” containing a vocabulary of distinguished terms, a syntax that determines their ratios, and rules of inference with which these terms of principle, insight, and issue are built into trains of thought about thought, every thought.

As a result, the wisdom of the Muses (Homer, Hesiod, Solon), of the Holy Spirit (the Synoptic Narratives of Mark, Luke, and Matthew, the Apostolic Letters of Paul, the Gospel of John), and of Humanity (Rousseau, Schiller, Hölderlin) can be seen to have thrice articulated, in their own terms, a moving vision of our experience with the distinction of human being, inspiring critical reflection to consider the λóγος as a destiny with regards to which even we, as the thinkers, the doers, and the builders of today, are still learning what it means to make a difference.

‘The Distinction of Human Being’ offers contemporary thinkers, beginners as well as professionals, a comprehensive reading of the origin and the tradition of metaphysics encompassing the life and times of pure reason as it unfolds across its theoretical, practical, and poetic endeavor the last of which suggests what a philological philosophy might entail and demand of a new generation of friends of wisdom.

1. Introduction

1. 1. Our Theme in a Nutshell

Consider the following scene so familiar to moviegoers: At a dramatic juncture of the story when the protagonist, having been previously so engrossed in the rush and tumble of events that she had not had time to give a second thought to where her choices were taking her and now had, in fact, taken her, unexpectedly encounters her reflection in a mirror – suddenly, it is painfully clear to her, in a way that it was not just a moment before, what she has done or become. We look at our reflection and are compelled to admit to ourselves that, with regards to what we see in our image, THE WAY IT IS is not THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.

This experience of critical self-reflection is well-known to all; surely we have all faced this ordeal of thinking beings who, one day, inexplicably, step back from the immediacy of their lived experience and, as if adopting a standpoint “outside” of their lives, “opposite” their world, reflect upon themselves, their lives, and their world, with eyes transformed into those of a judge who stands apart, above, beyond – the purview of his sight is no longer limited to the horizon hitherto defined by a given set of circumstances and worldviews of a subject, but rather extends beyond the pale of these particulars, beyond the ken of this given person, place, and present, broadens, deepens to encompass the bigger picture, to comprehend the grand and the grandest narratives of what will be and what was, what could be, indeed, even what ought to be but, alas, often, is not. This is a distinguished standpoint; for here we enter upon a life, a world and a life “outside” of my life, “above, beyond, opposite” my world – clearly, here is where the career of religion's fancy words and “otherworldly” worlds begins....

The purpose of the following investigation is to study this very experience of the difference that thought makes and how poets and prophets, as well as philosophers, have always employed the poetic language of narrative, drama, and verse – as well as the celebratory expressions of metaphysics like freedom and heaven, resurrection and beauty, justice and god, world and love to convey in vivid, earth-shattering terms the element and dimensions of that experience that we have called the distinction of human being.

Now while your friendly neighborhood philosopher would seem to excel in the cultivation of recondite notions, the biggest challenge facing a student of the distinction of human being is not the obscurity of this distinction but rather its apparent familiarity. Everybody knows what you are talking about when you give an example of this experience, of which there are countless many in our everyday lives. For this reason and precisely because of its being so utterly and completely evident to us, there would seem to be little more to say about it except to affirm that, yes, people, normally content to “go with the flow,” sometimes do indeed stop and step back to think things over.

But then why on earth was this experience of our capacity for critical reflection repeatedly celebrated as being of such monumental importance, as having such earth-shaking consequences that, of all possible objects of thought, it, i.e. critical thought itself, was held to be the one most worthy of reflection in its own right as if, by establishing thus a science of the distinction of human being as philosophers did, we were called upon to “step back” from every particular occasion of our “stepping back” and thereby gain a critical perspective on even this critical perspective such that, reflecting critically upon critical reflection, reflection itself came into view and, for the first time, thought took to thinking about thought. This is the old story of how speculation was born – not the journalist's, nor the investor's, but rather that of the thinker; it is the story of philosophy in the traditional sense of metaphysics, the science of pure reason – of that faculty of ours which has been known and celebrated since the days of the Greeks as the distinction of human being.

Metaphysical philosophers have always taught that people are endowed “by nature” with the capacity to step back and mind the gap between the IS and the OUGHT. It was considered to be the defining characteristic, the mark or seal, if you will, that identified all beings in general, so also human being, that they were distinguished not merely from every other being of the same kind, human from other sentient living beings, for example, but also that they were distinguished from themselves, namely from what a particular being was, in principle, meant, supposed, to be, according to the determination of its nature, its destiny.

So also as in our reflection in the mirror – the music crescendos and we not only recognize that painful discrepancy but also experience firsthand this very fact, namely that we are distinguished from ourselves “by nature;” here I am and there, that man in the mirror, is the image of what I have become – thus divided, we learn the hard way that by failing to live up to our own ideals, we are torn asunder within but also flung far above and beyond ourselves by them and, in this way, set apart in a “place” without; human being thus riven, thus “exiled,” is, as we might say, self-several and we all know that the self-severalty of our human being hurts, a lot, even as we are, at the same time, by switching our standpoint from the being seen and condemned to that of the seeing being of unfettered, unbiased judgment, uplifted, ennobled by the difference that critical thought makes.

Our stu...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgement
• Table of Contents
• Figures
• Preface
• Introduction
• The First Part The Topology of Principles
• 18. The Chiral Rhythm of Distinction
• 25. The Determination of Practical Thought
• 38. Saint Anger
• The Second Part The Determination of Our Method
• 61. The Dialectic of Terms
• The Third Part The Point of Departure of our Study
• The Fourth Part The Issue of Wisdom's Holy Writs
• The Third Epoch – The Autonomy of Humanity
• 89. The Virtue of Love
• 97. The Mirror Stage
• 107. Consecration and Celebration
• 112. The Language of Christianity
• 119. The Paradox of Glory
• 124. Preaching the Word of God
• The First Epoch – the Just Being of Destiny
• 136. Outstanding Being
• 145. The Gods are with us
• 151. The Just Fruits
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Note on the Author